


The Stone Gardens Before Us

by sevenholypathstohell



Category: Jack West Jr Series - Matthew Reilly, REILLY Matthew - Works
Genre: for all the deaths that were brushed aside in favor of advancing the plot, gdi matt, see how we have emotional voids to fill thanks to you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 18:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7518400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenholypathstohell/pseuds/sevenholypathstohell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack and co. find some time to unwind after laying the last pillar and saving the world. One of the first orders of business? Paying tribute to the fallen and honoring their memories and legacy into the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stone Gardens Before Us

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the song 'In Memoriam' by Evile. If there's anything vital I have missed out on, do let me know. Prepare your tissues from this point on, it's a doozy.

_One sombre afternoon after the Great Mission..._

 

“So, you’re sure you want to do this, kiddo?” Jack asked, his voice low but laced with emotion.

Lily set the shovel down in the dirt, reaching for her handkerchief. It was a handkerchief sewn with the greatest love and dedication, a gift to a little girl from someone she came to adore as her grandmother, now stained with snot and tears. She balled her fist, nearly crumpling the lovely cloth as she struggled to maintain her composure.

“Y-yes, daddy.”

Jack nodded and set his own shovel down, regarding his adopted daughter with a sense of pride. If anything, she was taking this whole situation better than most kids her age would, but he knew deep down why this was so. Jack West Junior had walked with death for all his life; just as death seemed ready to accept him, it would instead remove someone he held dear to him. He wondered if Lily realized this, too. Shaking his head, he planted his foot on the shovel and started digging.

 

V

  _Later that evening…_

 The whole squad, whatever remained of it, trudged out to the spot where Jack and Lily had digged, dirgeful. Five tiny ‘graves’ sat in a neat row, although one lay slightly further apart from the rest. Pooh Bear gazed at this sole grave with his one remaining eye, no longer bitter but mournful at the events that had resulted in the impairment of his sight. He was never one to hold grudges, even against the sworn enemies of his race. Speaking of which, Stretch hobbled over to join his unlikely comrade. This time, his silence radiated not cool indifference and brooding, but a quiet understanding of the love the big Arab had for his family, blood or otherwise.

 

Jack contemplated this group of individuals gathered before him and began to speak.

“I suppose all of you have figured out by now why I arranged for this. I didn’t, it was Lily’s idea, and I thought it appropriate to commemorate those who gave their all for this mission to be a success, but did not live to reap the fruits of their labor. This...ceremony, it’s for those we’ve lost and you feel are deserving of a proper send-off.”

Lily stepped forward, adding “Don’t hold back.” She paused to take in a deep breath before she could sniffle. “Say what you want to say if it helps you remember them well.”

 

The group turned to the first pit. Above it lay a miniature headstone with the word “Noddy” laser-engraved in it. Lieutenant Enrique ‘Matador’ Velacruz, originally of the Spanish Marines, ended with a single long-range bullet to the head. Jack still had nightmares of the big, almost impervious Noddy’s head shattering and his body dropping like a detached marionette. After all, he’d been right next to him when he was shot.

“N-Noddy.” Lily trembled as she approached the mound, a white rose clutched close to her chest. “I will never forget how you threw me in the air while I was small, the way you trained in the gym with me, how you were so friendly to everyone. I know I said this to you when we commemorated you the first time, but...but I miss you so much. I don’t know why you had to die so soon, I just don’t know.”

Lily tenderly lowered the rose into the mound, just as Sky Monster of all people stepped forward.

“Hey, big lad.” he announced in his traditional gruffness. “I hope you’re alive up there somewhere and kicking some Yank butt up there. Sorry, can’t say the ‘a’ word or Lily will get a swear tip from me.” He looked downwards at his rose and rubbed the stalk in his giant thumbs, then let it drop into the grave before looking to the heavens. “You did good though, even if you didn’t make it all this way. Anyways, it’s been a swell ride. Later, pal.”

Everyone else came forth and lowered their roses in as well. With that done, Jack buried the mound and the roses along with it. Kneeling to pat the dirt down, he mumbled out of earshot, “I miss ya too, Noddy.”

 

The next ‘grave’ belonged to ‘Fuzzy’. Once upon a time, he’d been VJ Weatherly of the Jamaican Brigade, a light infantry unit of that country’s armed forces. For all his tough as nails warrior spirit, he had somehow been caught and brutally executed.

Stretch hobbled forward. His fight with Vulture had left him in a near critical condition, but he had improved enough to walk about on crutches.

“Hello, VJ. Well, I don’t have much to say that I haven’t said already, but thank you for being there for me when it felt like no one else was. All those chilly nights doing sentry duty together, the jerk chicken you cooked for us, your professionalism and your ‘can-do’ attitude, I really admired it. You’ve been more of a friend to me than my own countrymen, and I mean it when I say that. Rest in peace, brother.” He offered his rose and strained as he receded.

As with Noddy, the others dropped their roses in, offering silent tributes to the man who worked so hard to make the Capstone mission a success, a true professional at his craft who gave his all and never sought anything in return. Jack covered this grave too, keen to never forget Fuzzy’s sacrifice.

 

Zoe held Lily’s hand as they turned to Big Ears’ plot. Once more, Lily wiped her cheeks dry as she remembered the worst night in all her twelve years brought out the best in the big Irish trooper. Even then, she’d been deathly afraid of the bullets passing through his body and hitting her, but she’d come through unscathed.

“Thank you, Big Ears.” she spoke softly but surely. “You were my bestest friend ever and I wish I could have spent more time with you. You’re my hero, forever and always.”

Zoe paused to gather her thoughts, then spoke slowly in her Irish lilt.

“Baby brother. I always called you the boy that would never grow up, funny how that’s true now more than ever. I’ll never forget your first day of grade school when you clung to me like a bloody leech and refused to befriend anyone. The first time you hit on a lass and she kissed you as a joke. The first day you joined the Fianno, oh how you screamed at Captain Sullivan to stop the push ups and he put you on half rations for the week. Fun times.”

Instead of a rose, Zoe held something that seemed to have no relation to funerals, but nobody commented on it- a 1:20 toy steamroller.

“But one thing I’ll never forget about you, Liam, is your selflessness. You always took brilliant care of everyone and put them way above yourself. Thanks to you, Lily is safe with us now.”

She bent down and gently placed the toy in the shallow grave. “This belongs to you. Take care of ma and da for me, will ye?”

 

After he’d witnessed Big Ears’ ‘burial’, Pooh Bear suddenly started to back out, indicating he had something to address.

“I believe I deliberately asked you to dig that one grave over there, Jack?”

“Yes you did, Pooh. What’s up?”

“I...please do not judge me, but I wish to remember my brother.”

All eyes turned to him as one, bemused.

“But why?” Stretched replied, slightly ticked off “He was-”

“Yes, Stretch. I know who he was, what he did to me.” Pooh assured, rubbing over his eyepatch.

“But I’ve forgiven him, for he was still my brother. He wasn’t always like this; my society’s positive bias of elder sons and our father’s expectations broke him spiritually. All he wanted was to make us proud, but he lost himself in drink and debauchery.”

Pooh tangled his fingers through his mighty beard and contemplated childhood memories of himself and Rashid, aka Scimitar.

“He used to be a good brother, but he pushed himself too hard and he succumbed to his demons. That made him an easy picking for people like Vulture. Please, allow me to take my leave to commemorate the brother I remember, for our father won’t even allow his name to whispered in our home now.”

“I see.” Jack nodded. “You’re free to honor him as you wish, as long as it brings you peace.”

Pooh accepted their understanding and walked over to Scimitar’s grave, where he knelt and uttered a silent prayer. When he’d finished, he turned around wearing a look of utter contentment.

“Wow Zahir. Looks like you just de-aged ten years.” Stretch quipped incredulously.

“Indeed. I prayed to Allah, may He be praised eternally, for forgiveness on his part. I cannot know for sure if that will be the case, but I felt a wave of positivity and love overwhelm me as I finished my prayer. He must be up there now, watching over me.”

 

Finally, everyone came up to the double grave Jack had dug. He and Lily had saved the most important dedication of all for last, as it would take all their emotional strength to get through this.

“Hey Wizard, Doris. If you can hear me, we’re all here to see you.” Jack started, barely controlling his weeping.

“You were the best parentals and teachers we could ever ask for.” Zoe added. “I cannot imagine how we’ll cope without you.”

“You have created more of a home than my home ever was.” Pooh chimed in.

“I never asked to be sent on your mission, but I too have gained people I can call my brothers and sisters. I regret nothing and I would give anything to have you back with us.” Stretch appended.

“Thanks for all those times you stayed up late to tinker with the Hali, I became a better pilot because of it.” Sky Monster grinned.

 

Jack clutched Lily’s hand as they stepped forward.

“W-would you like to go first, daddy?”

“Sure kid. You can follow after I’m done.”

To the double grave, he spoke, “Max, Doris. I am so sorry, so so sorry, that I could not have done more to protect the both of you. If I had it my way, I would gun down every single politician that sanctioned your deaths, every soldier that has fired at you in malice, but that would change nothing. That would not bring you back. No, Wizard, you befriended me because you valued my scholarly and not my killer instincts. You saw there was more to me than a mere grunt and helped me unlock my true potential as a scholar, leader, and most importantly, a father. You knew how vital I was to this mission and were an endless source of wisdom on any topic under the sun, it’s little wonder how you got your nickname. This was your life’s work, and it’s really tragic that you could not live to see it come to fruition, but we’ve done it, Wizard. The world is safe and we will continue to carry out your legacy.”

 

Jack looked to his cybernetic left arm, a very obvious part of Wizard’s work, and clenched the metal fist as he took Wizard’s words to heart.

“You told me before you left us that I was a good man because I cared, and that it was a privilege to be my friend. Yes, I do care about my family and the men under my charge, but without you, I never would have been given the opportunity to be all of this and more. Thank _you_ , Wizard, Doris, for being my friends and confidantes for all these long years, and for taking care of us.”

 

Finally, Lily stepped up to say her piece.

“Aunty Doris.” She wiped her cheeks again with the handkerchief. “Wizard. I miss you both so much, everyday. You were the grandma and grandad I did not have, and I was so happy to feel loved, not seen as a thing. I miss the long talks we had at night, the times you both cooked for me that ended in kitchen disaster, how you both always showered me in love and made me who I am.”

She refused to stifle herself any longer and dropped to her knees, letting her tears fall into the grave. Jack and Zoe knelt with her, emotions running into the little pit like rain.

“M-most of all, I miss the hugs. Th-thank y-you, Wizard, for s-saving me. I love you, and I love you too, Aunty Doris. Forever and ever and ever.”

 

V

  
“Feeling better, princess?” Jack asked tenderly.

“Yes, daddy. This was a good idea. I feel better now even though I will miss him.”

“Yeah… I’ll miss him too. We all miss him.” He assured, gently rubbing her head.

“But you can always be with us when the darkness comes. We’ll get through this, together.”


End file.
